Enhanced memory ability: insights from synaesthesia

Rothen, Nicolas; Meier, Beat; Ward, Jamie (2012). Enhanced memory ability: insights from synaesthesia. Neuroscience & biobehavioral reviews, 36(8), pp. 1952-1963. Elsevier 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.05.004

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People with synaesthesia show an enhanced memory relative to demographically matched controls. The most obvious explanation for this is that the ‘extra’ perceptual experiences lead to richer encoding and retrieval opportunities of stimuli which induce synaesthesia (typically verbal stimuli). Although there is some evidence for this, it is unlikely to be the whole explanation. For instance, not all stimuli which trigger synaesthesia are better remembered (e.g., digit span) and some stimuli which do not trigger synaesthesia are better remembered. In fact, synaesthetes tend to have better visual memory than verbal memory. We suggest that enhanced memory in synaesthesia is linked to wider changes in cognitive systems at the interface of perception and memory and link this to recent findings in the neuroscience of memory.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Review Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Psychological and Behavioral Health
10 Strategic Research Centers > Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory (CCLM)

UniBE Contributor:

Meier, Beat

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

0149-7634

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Brigitte Bättig

Date Deposited:

02 May 2014 10:04

Last Modified:

29 Mar 2023 23:33

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.05.004

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.48424

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/48424

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